Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on Tuesday, when Ritsumeikan defeated Doshisha 1-0 in the 14th inning. And though I brought it to the Wednesday game, the zoom function isn't working properly, so I have no shots of the game itself.
Anyway:
Everybody who came received a cardboard megaphone and thundersticks. The megaphones were rarely used but pretty much everyone clapped along with the cheerleaders and the band using their thundersticks. Sometimes I got the sneaking suspicion that following the cheers was more important than following the game itself. After all, it's kind of difficult to watch the game when you're rapidly clapping your thundersticks in front of your face.
In Japan, there is no 7th inning stretch with a rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Instead, they have the "Lucky 7," when all the fans release their balloons after a countdown from 15 to 1.
Some little plastic piece in the mouth of the balloon allows it to fly up and away, I think.
So the balloons go all over the place and many of them land on the diamond. No worries--team members help clean up before play resumes.
When the game is over (Doshisha won 2-1 on Wednesday), the crowd sticks around a bit longer. The teams line up, not to shake hands, but to bow to each other. Then, the winning team's fan section does some sort of cheer, followed by a song (the school song, perhaps?), followed by the team bowing to their fans. After that, the losing team does the same.
A couple other things that struck me:
1) The absence of SuperFans. Nobody with face paint, or even decked out in Rits colors.
2) The organization of the cheering! Not only were there female cheerleaders in your typical cheerleader uniform, but also male and female "cheer leaders" who wore suits with Rits ties (and a militant-looking Rits armband) and walked through the crowd encouraging fans to cheer. (I will admit Doshisha impressed me more in this regard--their crowd seemed very in sync with their cheerleaders.)
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